Of all the blogs in all the world, you stumbled upon mine.

Menu

Shortly after I posted last year’s predictions, the teaser for Gravity was released. Here’s the thing: I know many people are amazed by this teaser, but it just doesn’t ‘wow’ me the way that the teasers for Hugo and Life Of Pi did. What’s interesting is that both of those films were adopted from novels by academy award winning directors stepping out of their comfort zone. Not only is Gravity an original story, but Alfonso Cuaron has only been nominated for writing and editing before, never for directing. And besides, Cuaron is known for telling very visual stories (Children Of Men, Harry Potter 3) so this isn’t really anything new for him. Somehow I just don’t think the film will be that strong a contender.

So what’s happened this month that might change my opinion on Oscar season? Well, I am more confident about the chances of Inside Llewyn Davis, as well as a Sundance hit called The Way Way Back, from the writers of The Descendants. Hmm, maybe a screenplay contender? Also, now that i’ve seen Epic, I’m starting to doubt that it will earn an Animated Feature nomination. It basically comes down to foreign pick Ernest and Celestine and Turbo. I decided to go with the former on this, more for the fact that Turbo looks like a cheap knockoff of Ratatouille. I mean, think about it. It’s about a small animal who dreams of participating in a human activity, he makes friends with a human, and eventually his dream comes true. The only difference seems to be that while Remy wanted to cook French Cuisine, Turbo IS French Cuisine.

UPDATE: Untitled David O. Russell Film is now American Hustle.

BEST PICTURE

The Butler
Captain Phillips
The Counselor
Frozen
Inside Llewyn Davis
The Monuments Men
Saving Mr. Banks
Twelve Years A Slave
The Wolf Of Wall Street